Italy

On Saturday 4 October, tens of thousands of people carrying flags and
banners took to the streets of Rome in protest against the Europe of
bankers and bosses. The Inter-governmental meeting of EU leaders to
discuss the new European Constitution became the latest opportunity for
Social Forum and Trade Union leaders to...

The FIAT workers’ battle has taken on a European dimension. A two hour
European strike of FIAT group workers has been called for 16/12, against
the programme of group `restructuring’, already underway.

Yesterday’s general strike surpassed all expectations as literally
hundreds of thousands of angry workers and youth took to the streets in
120 cities across Italy. This was the second general strike in defence
of article 18 of the country’s labour law, which gives workers some
protection from...

The Summer months in Italy saw only a temporary suspension of the open
warfare between the classes provoked by the hated Berlusconi government.
Now, with the World Cup and the August holidays well and truly in the
past, battle has resumed.

The basis for the return of Berlusconi was created by the complete
failure of the previous government, the ‘Olive Tree’ coalition, composed
of the ex-Communist Party, now ‘rechristened’ as the Democrats of the
Left (DS), and different capitalist parties. This government, which
remained firmly...

Last week-end saw dramatic scenes of direct action in Italy to stop the
movement of US military supplies in the country. One major rail convoy
was forced to stop and to re-route in a number of different places by
hundreds of demonstrators occupying the tracks. The biggest US military
base in Europe at Camp Darby, near...

Following the official revelations of last month concerning the role of
the "Italian intelligence services" in Iraq, the last fig leaf of
Italy’s inactive participation in the invasion of Iraq has been taken
away. Any possible fig leaf about passive acceptance of the "shock and
awe" operation...

In Naples, as everywhere else in Italy on 18 October, the general strike
called by the Cgil trade union federation got support from a wide range
of other organisations like Cobas, Sin.Cobas, the unemployed movement,
the ’No Globals’, students and others.